Biggest polluters must pay — activists and scientists at COP27
COP27 president says he is optimistic a deal will be struck this week on the issue of loss and damage
Climate activists, scientists and political leaders attending the COP27 climate summit in Egypt have prioritised the controversial issue of “loss and damage ”— requiring the biggest polluting countries to compensate the countries most vulnerable to climate-driven disasters — this week.
The reluctance of wealthy, developed countries to be accountable for their role in fuelling the global warming crisis, or to commit to paying damages to developing countries affected the worst, is provoking condemnation across continents.
“There is a moral imperative that those who profited from the burning of fossil fuels acknowledge the debt they owe to the global south,” says Glen Tyler, SA leader of the climate justice organisation 350Africa.
“SA and the whole of Africa are needing to adapt to climate change, and we need money to do that. We need to make sure that the money coming to the continent and the global south is from grants, not loans.
“There have been protests at COP27 around cancelling debt, and it should go beyond that: the south should not be owing (the north), it should be exactly the opposite.”
Marchers chanted “pay up for loss and damage” at several protests at the weekend, after the first week of the talks at Sharmel-sheik.
Tyler saw delegates shout this message at US climate envoy John Kerry, who has expressed its position that the US will consider financing options for loss and damage but will not support a fund that implies liability.
Climate scientist Dr Anjal Prakash, research director of the Bharti Institute at the Indian School of Business, says getting the issue of loss and damage onto the formal agenda for the first time at COP27 was a victory, but now wealthy nations must be accountable and pay up.
“What is surprising is the people from the global north, who have actually polluted the environment, are refusing to acknowledge their responsibility and pay the people at the receiving end [of climate disasters],” he said in an interview.
Prakash said that regions in Africa “which are some of the poorest on all counts” were diverting finance they needed for development to combat climate emergencies such as floods.
Climate financing for the developing world was imperative to make them more resilient to climate change and lift people out of poverty, he said.
The COP27 president, Egyptian foreign affairs minister Sameh Shoukry, told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that he was optimistic a deal could be struck this week on the issue of loss and damage — despite disputes over who should pay and how much.
Some countries are calling for China and India to be included in the list of countries being blamed for accelerating climate change by emitting high amounts of harmful greenhouse gases.
Brian O ’ Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature, said his biggest concern at the summit so far was that wealthy nations were “not increasing finance for either loss and damage or to develop biodiversity at the scale required” to protect against the affects of climate change.
But he said: “Some countries absolutely see conserving nature as a key component, especially things like restoring mangroves and wetlands to deal with flooding and storms.”
Other countries looked at money for adaptation as finance to protect the most vulnerable communities, for example those living in low areas threatened by rising sea levels.
The recognition that “nature conservation has to pay a pivotal role through forests, oceans and systems like mangroves” to meet the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C was positive, he said.
Nature played a more prominent role at previous COP meetings than this one, said O’donnell. For example, at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, last year a pledge was made to conserve forests.
“The forest pledge has got real momentum and a real action plan behind it. This was not a podium moment that the leaders soon forgot,” he said.
The Campaign for Nature also welcomed the increasing recognition of the role of indigenous people in both climate change and biodiversity solutions, said O’donnell.
The election of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — whose first international trip will be attending COP27 on Wednesday — was one of the best stories in the last year for the protection of the Amazon and biodiversity, he said.
“I do think he will add sense of optimism and momentum which otherwise this COP has been lacking. Brazil is a major country which is into a solutions approach vs a blockers approach,” said O’donnell.
What is surprising is the people from the global north, who have actually polluted the environment, are refusing to acknowledge their responsibility and pay the people at the receiving end [of climate disasters]